New York City 2023 PART ONE

I’m so excited to write my first non-book post!

So, here’s my first life-happening…New York City!

We made this decision around Christmas when I told Ryan that I didn’t really want a bunch of gifts and instead, I’d rather take a short trip. He’d never been to NYC and I was dying to go back, especially since I hadn’t been 21 the last time I was there; I was ready to experience it as an adult. I found us a great deal on flights and the hotel and off we went!

We left Friday morning out of Charlotte at 7:00 AM…hello 4:00 AM alarm ugh. I’ve become more of a morning person over the years, but I’m really a morning person when I have a flight to catch 😉

 

 

We landed at LaGuardia right around 9:30 and hit the ground running! We were able to utilize public transportation, so what would have cost us $50 for an Uber from the airport to our hotel; we were able to pay just $2.75 for the (free) bus ride and subway into the city! We bought a Metro pass at the first subway station and used that throughout our trip. I HIGHLY recommend using the subway if you ever visit. It saved us so much money and once you figure it out, it almost becomes second nature. Also, I’m an iPhone user (I would assume Android would be the same) but you can get directions somewhere just as if you were driving and choose the “transit” option and it will tell you exactly what subway you need to get on and what stop to get on and off at. I was super impressed and although I did all my research beforehand and had a loose idea on what subways would get us where, this was incredibly helpful/useful!

 

 

We checked into the Hyatt Grand Central and it was okay. I stayed here the very first time I ever visited NYC with my family back in 2007 around Christmas-time and I remember the hotel being much more cozy and inviting. This time it seemed to be doing the bare minimum. Although it was very clean, the staff was friendly, and it wasn’t crowded, the hotel isn’t anything I would brag about. One really nice thing that did happen was when we were checking in, they gave me $25 to spend wherever in the hotel because we were staying so close to my birthday. Another upside was that it was 10 steps away from Grand Central Station which can basically get you to any subway you need to get on.

After we were able to check in early to our room, we walked across the street to Pershing Square for breakfast for a quick and pricey (eek) bite before we headed over to The American Museum of Natural History for a few hours.

 

 

We somehow got on the wrong subway and then bailed and decided we could just walk the rest of the way. Let’s just say that a 45 minute walk from Midtown Manhattan to the Upper West Side hits different than a 45 minute walk anywhere else. There’s A LOT of pedestrian traffic obviously and so you really have to abide by the walk and stop lights. Anddd of course it was unusually warm that day, something like 62 degrees. Needless to say by the time we got there in our big coats and sweaters, we were hot!

 

 

We were probably at the museum for about 2.5 hours and we could have spent much longer, but I think at this time we were both ready for a pick me up (a cold pint). Some of our favorite exhibits included the space and dinosaurs exhibits. How terrifying are they both! LOL

 

 

We headed out to find the nearest spot for beer and Ryan stopped to munch on a NY hot dog on the way. We stopped in at The Hoptimist for a few quick brews before we found the correct subway and avoided the 45 min walk back to the hotel.

Took a breather for a few minutes before we walked down to the Rockefeller Center to catch some sunset views of the city! The whole process was pretty seamless because they just scanned our pre-purchased tickets and up we went. But, I feel like it would have been just as easy if you waited to purchase tickets when you got there. Once you get to the top, you can climb one more level to get unobstructed views (no glass) and there is no time limit on how long you can stay. This, in my opinion, is sort of a problem but I really don’t know in what way they could police it. It’s a problem because you wait longer to get back down than you do to get up. So, after you’ve seen all your great views, you’re stuck waiting in line for an elevator for 25 minutes and the people in line around us were not so fun :/

 

 

Anywhoooo….after Rockefeller Center we went back to the hotel, freshened up, and headed out for dinner. This time we did take an Uber because I didn’t feel like walking in heels after a day full of walking and wasn’t so sure I wanted to be on the subway that late. So, a few blocks north we made our way to Monkey Bar.

Y’all…

This restaurant…OMG.

We didn’t have reservations…I tried, but even a week before they were completely booked. I saw that their bar area was for walk-ins only so I figured we’d try our luck. Good thing Ryan loves me because once we got there, it wasn’t looking good for us. There were 9 names ahead of us and you could hardly get to the bar to get a drink. About 25 minutes in, we got lucky! It definitely wasn’t the table I would pick for the atmosphere (very dark, moody, and the perfect date night) but I was just happy we got a table at all. The service was good, the drinks were strong, and the food….THE FOOD! It was great. Ryan got a few oysters on the half shell along with linguini with clams while I got the vodka rigatoni. Let me tell you, I will spend the foreseeable future thinking about that pasta and even trying to replicate it. So simple, yet the best pasta I’ve ever had!

 

 

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to crash. It was a super long, very packed day, but very fun day and we had to get ready to get up and do it all over again!

 

I’ll be back soon with a recap of day 2 & 3.

 

Cheers!